Abstract. Let (A, m) be a Noetherian local ring with infinite residue field and let I be an ideal in A and let F(I) = L n≥0 I n /mI n be the fiber cone of I. We prove certain relations among the Hilbert coefficients f 0 (I), f 1 (I), f 2 (I) of F(I) when the a-invariant of the associated graded ring G(I) is negative.